Back to Markets
Crypto▲ Bullish
USD1 stablecoin used for UFC bonus payouts at White House event
World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin, previously tied to a DeFi lending controversy, now pays UFC fighters at a White House event. Supply grew to $4.6B.
Continue with
World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin moved from locking retail depositors out of a DeFi lending pool to paying fighters on the White House lawn.
The UFC said Friday that the Trump family's crypto venture would serve as presenting partner of a $250,000 performance bonus pool at UFC Freedom 250, a mixed martial arts event held Sunday, June 14 – President Donald Trump's 80th birthday – on the south lawn of the presidential residence. The bonuses went out in USD1 to fighters across seven matches.
The awards are among the most prominent commercial deployments of USD1 to date.
The visibility push comes months after a borrowing controversy briefly hit the price of WLFI, World Liberty Financial's governance token, and rattled sentiment in crypto circles. The company had borrowed more than $75 million in stablecoins from Dolomite, a DeFi lending protocol whose co-founder Corey Caplan advises WLFI, using 3 billion WLFI tokens as collateral and depositing its own USD1 as part of the arrangement.
That borrowing pushed the USD1 pool to 93% utilization. Retail depositors who lent USD1 to the pool expecting to withdraw at will could not do so until the loans were repaid. WLFI repaid $25 million of the position, then minted $25 million in fresh USD1 days later, actively managing the token's supply through April. World Liberty Financial did not respond to a request for comment on the report.